Automated Designated Driver

This blog is a record of the escapades of team3 of Calvin College Engineering. Our project goal is to build a fully autonomous vehicle to compete in the intelligent ground vehicle competition(IGVC). This vehicle must be able to not only autonomously navigate a course composed of GPS waypoints, but it must also be able to avoid obstacles using visual recognition techniques.

19.3.05

Sounds Good

I can't wait to get back and start working on the car again. One of my goals for the 3 days i'm back is to mount the wireless e-stop somewhere on the car so that it is still effective with the body put on. That is one goal and the other is to cut and bend the side pieces for the car body. I am pretty sure that this will take 3 days of working when the shop is open. That is how I will spend my days and then I will help do as much testing as I need to after the metal shop closes each day.

15.3.05

Made a minor adjustment

OK, so last night Nate had this little problem: The car pulled a wicked tight turn and the wireless e-stop circuit came loose from its battery. Which is not good, seeing as how the wireless e-stop can't wirelessly e-stop to car without power. So I soldered the power and ground leads for the e-stop circuit to terminal rings, and tightened those onto the battery's leads, so the e-stop won't lose power again unless one of the wires breaks (that is to say, until one of the wires breaks). On a similar note, right now the only e-stop button that is actually on the car is made up of the two 1-mm-square buttons on the motor controller, both of which have to be pressed at the same time to stop the motors. Thus, the top that Matt made can't be affixed to the car until there is at least one real emergency stop button on the car, because otherwise the only way to reach the manual e-stop would be to hold up the front of the car while unscrewing the top, and then pressing the two miniscule buttons on the controller. Hopefully I'll have a proper e-stop button in a few days, but we'll have to see. Everybody enjoy the rest of spring break!

14.3.05

Its a bird, its a plane, no its super monitor

Ok so i got the joystick working tonight. Why a joystick? Well when its not being its fun ol' autonomous self I want to drive it around a bit. Anyway I learned a couple of valueable lessons that I must put to use before I fully integrate the joystick.

1. No one in there right mind every needs a logorithmic turning accleration curve.2. Forgetting to actually make the joystick controlled emergency stop brake the car before it exits the program can make life stink.3. Getting hit by fast moving objects hurts.4. I probably could have won an olympic medal for computer(well, monitor) throwing tonight, I think I put the thing like (paul don't read this) 10 feet through the air. It was only the fact that its cord got caught around the vehicles frame that prevented it from going any further.5. Paul's monitor can survive anything, I swear its true.6. Sometimes secondary E-stops don't work.7. The third E-stop should be something more than two tiny buttons on the front of the vehicle.8. Autonomous vehicles are entertaining and fun....

Well thats it for now, but I'm sure I will have somethign for tommorrow.